A separate anti-fascist group gathered at St Luke’s from 11am before heading to Lime Street in an apparent bid to greet arriving National Action members, who had earlier been told to bring face masks, sunglasses and a “heavy-duty belt with heavy belt buckle” with them.

Hundreds of anti-fascist campaigners, dozens of whom covered their faces with scarves and masks, surrounded Lime Street before marching toward the Adelphi hotel.

They then returned to the station, entering the building and surrounding a small group of what appeared to be National Action supporters.

As the two groups faced off either side of a line of police officers, eggs and plastic bottles were thrown in the direction of suspected neo-Nazi activists who were contained inside a lost luggage facility and appeared to be goading protesters.

Eventually the shutters were lowered on the facility, with the activists left inside as anti-fascist protesters chanted “Master race, you’re having a laugh”.

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While the rival groups came close to clashing inside Lime Street Station safety announcements were repeated over the tannoy calling on all protesters to understand there were scared children inside the building.

The chaotic scenes threatened to turn nasty with police officers working hard to keep rival protesters apart, before anti-fascist campaigners left the station and gathered outside the Lord Nelson Street entrance.

It then emerged National Action, who appeared to be significantly outnumbered, had taken the decision to cancel their march. Police confirmed shortly after that they had left Liverpool.

The news led to celebrations among anti-fascist protesters, who then marched to Pier Head before dispersing.

Following the demonstrations, Merseyside Police confirmed six people had been arrested and taken to police stations for questioning, while a man had been treated for facial injuries. It has not been confirmed which groups those arrested and injured were involved with.

Silver Commander for the operation, Chief Inspector Chris Gibson said: “We worked with partners to ensure minimum disruption to businesses and residents and we’d like to thank the public for their patience while these marches were on-going in the city.

“The force recognises the right of people to demonstrate peacefully and express their views but the force will not tolerate disorder anti-social behaviour during any demonstrations in Merseyside.”

White supremacist group National Action had previously appeared to threaten that Liverpool “will go up in flames” if its march was banned.

A letter claiming to be from the group was sent to Mayor Anderson that said: “God help you and your Liverpool vision if you interfere with our God given right of public expression and freedom of speech. We look forward to a National Action-packed weekend of ethnically-enriched chaos and mayhem.”

National Action has since denied it was responsible for the letter, blaming it on an “agent provocateur”.

The “White Man March” was allowed to go ahead with police stating that, due to the Human Rights Act 1998, the force is obliged to facilitate peaceful protest. But in the face of huge opposition the march was cancelled, with police confirming the organisers themselves had taken that decision.